In order to access a document (e.g., a webpage) on the Internet, a user must download the document from a web server to a client computer using a software application such as a web browser. Therefore, the document download speed is critical to the user's web browsing experience.
Multiple factors affect the document download speed. First, the bandwidth of the Internet network infrastructure is limited. Second, there are inherent inefficiencies with the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), the data transfer standard adopted by most web server providers and web browser developers. Third, many important recommendations published in the official HTTP protocol standard for improving document download speeds have not been implemented yet by manufacturers or developers or both.
Many proposals have been made to boost the document download speed at a little extra cost. Among them, a client cache residing in the client computer in connection with a web browser is a popular choice. Pre-selected documents such as static image files, frequently-visited webpages and the like, can be stored in the client cache so that the web browser does not have to download them repeatedly. From an on-line subscriber's perspective, client caching can reduce the average time required for rendering a document in the web browser. However, there are many limitations to this approach. For instance, the client cache cannot host a large number of pre-downloaded documents due to its limited size. Moreover, the client cache only contains documents that have been viewed by the subscriber previously, and therefore the client cache does not contain new documents that have not been requested by the subscriber.
It would therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods that address the problems identified above, and thereby improve the users' web browsing experience.